2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
There are times when people who have been good servants of God falter in their obedience to Him, leading the Lord to act in His role as Parent to correct their behavior. This is always done with fairness and never done out of malice. Jehovah Rapha, the God Who heals, had to do this with Miriam, the older sister of Moses. In looking at her story in NU 12, we can see how God interacts with her to correct her behavior and later to bring healing. NU 12: 1, “Moses had married a Cushite woman, and Miriam and Aaron criticized him for it.” The Cushites were a dark-skinned people from what is today Ethiopia. Moses obviously had more than one wife in his lifetime, as earlier we know he was married to the Midianite priest, Jethro’s, daughter, Zipporah. Zipporah was the mother of Moses’ two sons, Gershon and Eliezer. It is interesting to note that Gershon means “foreigner” and Eliezer means “God helps me.” Moses said, “I have been a foreigner in a strange land,” which is why he named his oldest son, Gershon. He also said, “The God of my Father helped me and saved me from being killed by the Pharaoh,” which is why Eliezer got his name [EX 18: 3-4]. We hear again about Zipporah when Moses was stopped by God in the middle of the desert between Midian and Egypt and was told to have Zipporah circumcise their two sons [EX 4: 25-26]. Apparently, Zipporah and the boys returned with her father, Jethro to Midian for awhile. We know that, because in EX 18: 1-2, we are told that after Moses was having trouble dealing with all the people’s disputes by himself, Jethro came to visit him bringing Zipporah and the two boys.
I get a sense that Moses’ marriage to the Cushite woman took place years later. That is because Miriam had already been a respected prophetess for some time when this marriage happened. To appreciate why God valued Miriam, it is helpful to look at her place in the events that led up to Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egyptian bondage. Moses and his older brother, Aaron, and sister, Miriam, were the children of a Hebrew couple, Amram and Jocabed from the tribe of Levi. Their parents were slaves in Egypt. The Pharaoh had ordered that Hebrews were to be slaves because he was intimidated by their shear numbers. EX 1: 15-16, “Then the Pharaoh spoke to Shiphrah and Puah, the two midwives who helped the Hebrew women. ‘When you help the Hebrew women give birth, kill the bay if it is a boy; but if it is a girl, let it live.’” This evil order was surely not in keeping with God’s will. When Jocabed gave birth, she had plenty of reason to worry about what would happen to the baby. She knew that the Pharaoh’s daughter often came to a certain part of the river to bathe. Jocabed had hidden Moses for three months, but could not hide him any more. That is why she built a water-tight cradle and cast him in it on the river where it would float past where Pharaoh’s daughter bathed. Miriam stood some distance away waiting to see what would happen to Moses. It was God’s will that the Pharaoh’s daughter would hear Moses crying and desire to retrieve him and care for him. Later, when Moses was hungry, Miriam suggested to the princess that Jocabed could feed him without the princess ever knowing that Jocabed was really the baby’s mother [EX 2: 1-10].
We learn that Miriam is a prophetess in EX 15: 19-21, when she sings the Song of Miriam after the Jews escaped capture with God’s help in the parting of the Red Sea. With her tambourine, she sings, “Sing to the Lord, because He has won a glorious victory; He has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea.” In NU 12, which is later in time when Miriam has a number of years of service to God accomplished, God is angered by her criticism of Moses’ marriage. NU 12: 6-8, [The Lord said to Aaron and Miriam], “When there are prophets among you, I reveal Myself to them in vision and speak to them in dreams. It is different when I speak with My servant, Moses; I have put him in charge of all My people, Israel. So, I speak to him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he has even seen my form. How dare you speak against My servant, Moses!’” The Lord, Who was seen in the form of a cloud departed from the Tabernacle, and Miriam’s skin was suddenly covered with a dreaded disease and turned white as snow (9). Moses immediately offered an intercessory prayer for his beloved sister. In His compassion, God replied in (14), “If her father had spit in her face, she would have to bear her disgrace for seven days. So let her be shut out of the camp for a week, and after that she can be brought back in.” This was consistent with the rules that Jehovah Rapha had set down in LV 13: 4. It is significant that (15) reveals that “the people did not move on until she was brought back into the camp.” Remember that the people had to follow God [the pillar of cloud in daytime and the pillar of fire at night]. God’s compassion was shown in His willingness to wait until the week of Miriam’s punishment had elapsed. It is also shown in the restoration of Miriam to health and her position when her punishment was over.
One might ask: Why is this story important to us? The answer rests in understanding of God’s motives. He is our Jehovah Rapha Whose desire is to see each of us perfected to the point where we are ready to meet the Lord when He comes for us. Miriam is certainly included in that. Our loving Abba has the wisdom to know what changes must be made in us to expunge the remaining sin we have that would keep us from that divine appointment. Miriam had to know that God is sovereign and that His will must come ahead of any human prejudices or agendas. He alone has the wisdom and perception to see the big picture. Of course, He wants us to stretch to reach toward that perception, but He is wise enough to know that we aren’t able to fully achieve it during our lives on earth. Review IS 55: 8-9 for God’s explanation of this. Yet, we also must balance knowledge of God’s sovereignty with that of His love for each of us. That is why we can know that we can put our trust in and obey Him, with the faith that we have placed ourselves in compassionate hands-hands that have only our best interests in mind.
PRAYER: O Lord, You gave us the story of Miriam to demonstrate Your love for us. That is why we can call the Scriptures Your “love letter” to us. The patience and compassion You demonstrate in our lives speaks for itself. We must seek Your help in expunging prejudice and human agendas from our lives, because these fly in the face of what You know to be best for us. The love and loyal service that Miriam showed most of her life led You to correct her behavior with wisdom and compassion. We must learn from her example that You will do the same for us when sin we have not dealt with rears its ugly head in our lives. You are the only source for real healing, dearest Jehovah Rapha. It is You to Whom we should turn when we find ourselves sinning. We must turn to You in humility, confess our sin, and repent of it. Even those of us who have served You for a long time sometimes find ourselves in need of Your guidance. We offer You our adoration, worship, praise, and thanks for the healing that You offer us. Because You are in our lives, we are truly a blessed people. We pray that You will use us to bring others to faith in You and that You will continue to empower us to spend our lives in Your service as Miriam did. We dedicate ourselves to trusting and obeying You in Christ’s holy name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will continue our look at Jehovah Rapha, beginning with a view of the heart that the Psalmist demonstrates for us in a humble plea for healing and continuing on with healing accomplished by the Son. God has given us stories from the Scriptures and the ability to pray, because of His love for each of us and His desire to interact with us to forward our sanctification. No material gift ever given us could be as valuable as the gift of the work of the cross or the faith that study and prayer brings. These gifts from God transcend the grave and encourage our faith as that Day approaches when He will come for us in the rapture. For that reason, we need never go a day in our lives feeling like we are alone, abandoned, or unloved. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn